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Like many races in the galaxy, the Narn were one of those visited in the ancient past by the Vorlons, who left behind a legacy of genetic manipulation in the form of telepaths and the writings of the prophet G'Lan. Around the Earth Year1260, the Shadows used one of Narn's southern continents as a base of operation during the First Shadow War. At that time, the Narn were primarily an agrarian society although they had small interstellar capable explorer vessels, they were mostly ignored by the Shadows. When G’Quan suspected the Shadows were fighting a war off world, Narn pilots began tracking their ship movements, confirming that they were engaged in a war that threatened to overwhelm the very stars themselves. These pilots also found the homeworld of the Shadows in a system located at the edge of known space. Reporting back with this information G’Quan and others engaged in acts of sabotage against the Shadows bringing the Narn to their attention. Discovering telepaths among the population, the Shadows sent their dark servants out and began killing them. Realising what was happening, G'Quan rallied the population and led the last remaining telepaths to drive the Shadows from Narn, never to return.[1][2][3]

Around the Earth year 2109, Narn was again visited by offworlders, this time from the Centauri Republic. The Narn greeted the newcomers in peace but the Centauri, seeing only a planet rich in resources populated by a primitive and technologically inferior species (at least by Centauri standards) went about enslaving the Narn and strip mining the planet.

Although the Narn assert that they had space travel at this point, the Centauri later claim it was actually them that took the Narn with them to the stars.[4] This is a dubious claim by the Centauri, since the Minbari Federation recognized that Ragesh III was a Narn colony prior to the 2109 invasion.[5][6]

Through the course of a century the Narn resistance grew, reverse-engineering captured Centauri technology and weapons and in a planet-wide war of attrition the Centauri were eventually driven from the Narn homeworld in 2231.[7]

Shortly after gaining their freedom, the newly established Narn Regime set about using what they had learned from the Centauri and began looking for opportunities and resources to exploit. One of the uncharted worlds they landed on was N'chak'fah, a mist shrouded world with promising natural resources and apparently no indigenous civilization.

Shortly after the first scouting party landed, they were approached by what appeared to be very large insects. Taking them to be a potentially dangerous pest, the Narn opened fire and killed the approaching alien lifeforms. Though they did not realize it at the time, the Narn had just made first contact with the Gaim. Later when more Narn arrived to begin mining the planet, they were quickly overrun by swarms of Gaim warrior drones. Not expecting such vicious resistance, the Narn eventually retreated.[8]

In 2228, after striking a secret deal with the ruling Centauri government on Narn, the Dilgar invaded the Narn colony of Hilak VII. Most of the Narn who were not killed outright became subjects in War MasterJha'dur's infamous experiments.[9]

In 2245, the Narn were quick to take advantage of the Centauri Republic's unwillingness to help the Earth Alliance in their conflict with the Minbari by agreeing to sell them some of the advanced weapons technologies they had acquired during the Centauri occupation. The Minbari eventually found out about the weapons sales (most likely through the Centauri) and SataiDelenn of the Grey Council had Anla'Shok NaLenonn instruct his Rangers to make contact with the Narn, to use them as intermediaries to set up a secret meeting for peace negotiations. The Narn obliged and even offered the use of one of their cruisers to transport the Earth representative to the rendezvous at an old Earth listening post in the Epsilon System, with AmbassadorG'Kar going along as interpreter. The meeting was a disaster as almost as soon as Lenonn met with the humans an unknown ship came through the local Jumpgate, destroying the Narn cruiser and opened fire on the listening post, killing Lenonn and stranding the others until the Minbari arrived. Though at the time each side assumed the culprit was a renegade faction of their own governments, it would come out much later that it was in fact a Centauri, sent by Ambassador Londo Mollari who, having learned of the Narn mission to the Epsilon System, assumed it was an arms shipment and was under orders to prevent the Narn from using the War to create closer ties with the Earth Alliance.[10]

In 2256, the Narn agreed to be among the major races to send representatives to the newly completed Babylon Station.[11]

By 2258, the Narn became more and more aggressive in their ongoing expansion, going so far as to financing and supporting Raiders in the Euphrates Sector and retaking Ragesh 3, a colony which the Centauri had owned for over a century. At the time the Centauri seemed weak-willed and unwilling to enter into open conflict at even this direct provocation, though the true reason was in EmperorTurhan's wish to reconcile with the Narn and apologize for his family's mistreatment of their planet and people.

Throughout the year, tensions between the Narn Regime and the Centauri began to rise steadily, despite the efforts of Earth to mediate their many border and trade disputes. However, in late December, events began to turn against the Narn when their colony in Quadrant 37 was mysteriously wiped out by an unknown enemy.
Believing that none of the current races had either the will or the power to carry out a strike like this, not even the Centauri, Ambassador G'Kar set out to uncover the identity of the attacker. His investigations led him to many dark and deserted worlds out on the Rim, discovering that something out there was on the move, leading him to the homeworld of the ancient dark enemy that had once come to Narn. Barely escaping with his life he returned to Babylon 5 and tried to warn the others of the coming danger, even going so far as to suggest that this threat was so great that he believed the Narn and Centauri may have to work together in order to survive. Though even the Kha'Ri were skeptical regarding G'Kar's warnings, they agreed to send one of their cruisers to the region where G'Kar was attacked. The cruiser was destroyed as soon as it emerged from Hyperspace though the Kha'Ri believed it to be an accident with the jump engines and were unwilling to send another ship to investigate; G'Kar was convinced that someone had warned the enemy they were coming.

In 2259, after the destruction of another major Narn colony in Quadrant 14 and its defending battle group by the Shadows, credited to the Centauri Republic, the Narn officially declared war on their old enemy. The Narn-Centuari War was ultimately a machination of the Shadows to mask their dismantling of one of the five major galactic powers, to weaken resistance for their eventual return. The war would last six months with the Narn taking considerable losses from the onset, being unaware of the Centauri's secret alliance with the Shadows and having never fought an open and total war with the Centauri still possessing a technological edge. In the last days of the war, the Shadows ambushed and destroyed the Narn Main Fleet, allowing the Centauri to decimate the Homeworld from orbit and put it once more under alien occupation.

In 2260, shortly before the Shadow War, Babylon 5 declared independence from Earth, leaving the station underprotected as they had to purge most of their security force. Citizen G'Kar, the last of the Kha'Ri still free, living under sanctuary, offered the services of the free Narn on the station to join Station Security and later as part of the Babylon Treaty provided the last remaining Narn Cruiser to the defense of Babylon 5. This cruiser took part in one of the first coordinated strikes on a Shadow Fleet.
The few Narn ships that had survived the Centauri joined John Sheridan's multi-race fleet that faced the Shadows and Vorlons at the Battle of Coriana VI. At the same time, the Centauri Emperor Cartagia died suddenly while visiting Narn; at Mollari's suggestion the Centauri withdrew from Narn space, leaving them free once again.

Shortly after the liberation of Narn, the Kha'Ri were re-established and due to G'Kar's influence they joined the new Interstellar Alliance.

In 2262, when it is revealed that the Centauri were behind a number of attacks on Non-Aligned shipping, the Alliance declared war. During this war, the Drazi and the Narn felt that President Sheridan's approach was too cautious, and eager for revenge they attacked the Centauri Homeworld. It was around this time that the Book of G'Kar was released and the cult of personality surrounding G'Kar became an ever-growing religion in its own right. Such was the outcry on Narn that the Kha'Ri insisted that G'Kar return home to lead or to give his official blessing to the government. He instead took off for the Rim to remove himself as a distraction to his people, leaving Ta'Lon as Ambassador to Babylon 5.